Some time ago, very few people talked on a wireless phone. It was thought more of a novelty than a necessity. Today that has changed, and having a wireless phone or some other type of wireless communication device is playing an important and ever-increasing role in our society. No longer satisfied with simply placing or terminating a telephone call, wireless subscribers demand special services and often come to expect them when purchasing a wireless telephone or wireless service.
Recent advances in telecommunications have enabled a number of these special services to be made available. Examples of special services may include abbreviated dialing, which allows a subscriber to reach a party by dialing less than the entire telephone number of that party, call forwarding, in which calls directed to the subscriber may be forwarded to another line, terminating call screening, which allows the subscriber to specify certain times during which incoming calls are to be rejected, and originating call screening, in which calls to certain telephone numbers are barred. In general, special services encompass those service features that do more than simply place or terminate telephone call as dialed.
Typically, the special services offered to subscribers are based on databases linked to an intelligent network (IN) through nodes referred to as service control points. Local end offices and other networks can access these databases by sending database query messages through the IN to the service control point. The service control point receives the query message, and may execute an appropriate set of service logic and/or consult appropriate databases to obtain information and instructions needed to provide a special service to the call. After accessing the information, the service control point replies to the query through the IN network to the requesting local end office. Based on the information received, the local end office is then able to create the requested service(s). Therefore, the service control point provides the call handling instructions and service instructions to the local end office so that it knows how to handle calls for a specific subscriber.